There is a need for multi-purpose products that function as both effective cleaners and effective disinfectants. Unfortunately, cleaners that demonstrate excellent cleaning performance tend to have poor disinfecting properties, and disinfectants that demonstrate excellent disinfecting performance tend to have poor cleaning properties.
There are a few products that have good cleaning and disinfecting properties. However, these products are typically either heavy duty cleaners and disinfectants for industrial and/or residential use on hard surfaces, or mild antimicrobial cleaners for use on human skin. On the one hand, heavy duty cleaning and disinfecting products generally contain harsh chemicals such as peroxygen bleach, hydrogen peroxide, glutaraldehyde and quaternary ammonium. These chemicals are toxic and poisonous and extreme caution needs to be taken when using cleaners and disinfectants containing these chemicals so as to minimize contact against human skin and damage to surfaces.
On the other hand, cleaning and disinfecting formulas compatible for use on human skin generally do not provide the high cleaning and disinfecting power for targeting microorganisms typically found on hard surfaces, because the porosity and sensitivity of skin makes most hard surface formulations unsuitable. Also, cleaner disinfectants and like products tend to include synthetic chemicals in low concentrations, such as pyrithiones, thiazolinones, sulfites, diazo compounds, chlorinated organics, brominated organics, phenols, bisphenols, resourcinols and alkylated parabens. Even at low concentrations, these chemicals are aggressive, and when the formulation is applied, the dermal oils can be defatted over time. Further, there are concerns that with repeated applications of these cleaner disinfectants, antimicrobial resistance may result due to the presence of synthetic chemicals.
There also exist disinfectant products that do not include toxic chemicals, such as products formulated with naturally occurring essential oils having antimicrobial activity. However, because essential oils are inherently immiscible, essential oils based disinfectants typically utilize a dispersing agent such as a surfactant and/or a solvent to solubilize the essential oils into solution. Although the use of surfactants may improve the stability and shelf life of disinfectants formulated with essential oils, the surfactants tend to hold the essential oils in suspension, in the form of a macro-emulsion, which inhibits the antimicrobial activity of the essential oils.
Many surfactants are also known to be effective cleaning agents. However, surfactants that are good cleaning agents do not necessarily enhance the disinfecting efficacy of the antimicrobial agents. For example, the surfactants utilized in known disinfectants formulated with essential oils, such as the non-toxic biosurfactants disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,346,281 and 6,846,498 issued to the present inventor, are not very effective cleaning agents, as they tend to get tied up with the minerals in the hard water used in the cleaning process, which reduces the amount of surfactants available for cleaning. Further, these surfactants have a chemical structure that does not provide optimum surface tension reduction, interfacial surface tension reduction or dispersion properties. For the above reasons, known essential oils based disinfecting compositions are not very effective cleaners. It is also difficult to formulate known essential oils based compositions in concentrated form using naturally-based, biodegradable, non-toxic surfactants, as the surfactants typically are not completely miscible in the oil phase, forming a phase separate from the aqueous components, which makes the compositions unstable and commercially non-viable in the concentrated state.
Accordingly, there is a need for essential oils based cleaning and disinfecting compositions that disperse the essential oils well in a water carrier, and that are stable, have a long shelf life and are affordable and aesthetically appealing to consumers. There is also a need for essential oils based cleaning and disinfecting compositions that are environmentally sustainable, completely botanical or natural, biodegradable, non-toxic, non-streaking, compatible with the human skin, capable of providing shine to inanimate surfaces as well as capable of providing a broad disinfecting spectrum, and that utilize relatively low concentrations of a limited number of naturally occurring essential plant oils. There is further a need for essential oils based cleaning and disinfecting compositions that can be formulated in concentrated form, and thereby sold to end users at an attractive price point and dispensed for dilution at the use site, which is of particular importance for commercial markets where freight costs and storage space are critical, such as the cruise, military and foreign markets.